No. 3 Alabama remains undefeated in SEC play

AUBURN, Ala. – The No. 3 Alabama men’s basketball team outscored Auburn 25-12 over the final 9:35 to take a 77-69 victory Saturday afternoon at Neville Arena. The Crimson Tide trailed by five points with just over nine minutes left in the game before starting a comeback that earned the team its second win on Auburn’s home floor in the past three years.

With the win, Alabama remained undefeated in Southeastern Conference play and improved to 12-0 which was just behind the program’s best 14-0 record in 1955-56. Additionally, the Crimson Tide is now 22-3 on the season matching the 1975-76 team for the best record in school history after 25 games.

Freshman Rylan Griffen came off the bench to score a team-high 16 points on 5-of-7 shooting from the field and 3-of-4 from deep. Mark Sears had 15 points and six boards while Brandon Miller (13) and Jaden Bradley (12) also reached double digits in the win.

Wendell Green led Auburn (17-8, 7-5 SEC) with a game-high 24 points while Jaylin Williams added 16 in the losing effort.

HEAD COACH NATE OATS POSTGAME COMMENTS

“It was a big win, they (Auburn) played hard and they were ready. Coach Pearl was ready and the game plan was good early and he did a good job on Brandon (Miller), but I felt different. guys stepped up and I thought some of our young guys played well. I thought Jaden Bradley played really well, Rylan Griffen was great, hit some big shots and made some free throws when we needed them. I thought our guys showed some resilience to the bad shooting game weather from Brandon and the guys the other boy went up.

TEAM STATISTICS

• The contest featured 13 lead changes and seven ties.
• Auburn led for 24:56 compared to Alabama leading to 10:11 Alabama was dominant inside, outscoring Auburn 44-20 inside the paint.
• The Crimson Tide had 25 bench points led by Rylan Griffen and Nimari Burnett added five.
• The Tide finished the contest shooting just 13-of-23 (56.5 percent) from the foul line compared to 22-of-26 (84.6 percent) for the Tigers.
• A layup by Wendell Green as time expired made the margin eight points, marking only the second conference game that Alabama won by 10 or more points this year.

FIRST HALF

After the opening back-and-forth 20 minutes, Alabama and Auburn tied at 37-all at intermission four Alabama freshmen will score 19 of the Tide’s 37 points led by Brandon Miller’s eight points.

The Tide shot 62.5 percent in the half for the second time in an SEC game this season (shot 60 percent in the 2nd half vs. Vanderbilt on January 31).

Twenty-four of the tide’s 37 first half points came inside the paint, while only nine came from beyond the arc Alabama limited Auburn to only 37 percent from the floor but the Tigers converted 12-12 free throws in the first half.

HALF TIME

Auburn scored seven of the first 10 points of the second half to take a nine-point lead into the second half to take a 44-39 lead. as big as Auburn’s lead will get.

With the Tigers leading 59-53 with just under 10 minutes remaining, Mark Sears and Rylan Griffen would combine to score 12 of the Tide’s next 14 points during the game’s 13-3 run.

UA lead 66-63 With Alabama clinging to a 68-66 lead at the 3:39 mark, the Tide went on a game-ending 9-1 run to end the game. Rylan Griffen scored 11 of his 16 points in the second half.

UP NEXT

Alabama will travel to Knoxville, Tenn., to face the Tennessee Volunteers on Wednesday night. The contest will tip off at 7 p.m. ET and air live on ESPN2 or ESPNU